Bullying, Redistricting All Discussed In Middletown School Board Forum (2024)

Schools

Here is our second installment of what was said in the candidates' forum Monday night in the Middletown school board election:

Posted Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 3:27 pm ET|Updated Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 3:38 pm ET

The forum was hosted by the Monmouth County League of Women Voters, and was attended by all seven candidates: Frank Capone, Jacqueline Tobacco and Caterina Skalaski on the Putting Children First slate, Ashley Studd, Justin Meehan and Kelly Del Sordi on the Be The Change slate and Mark Soporowski, an independent, running on his own.

The forum moderator asked the school board candidates questions that were previously submitted from the Middletown public.

Question #2: How would you address concerns about bullying and harassment in Middletown schools?

Tobacco responded that the district hired anti-bullying specialists in all middle and high schools.

Soporowski called for the district to have clearer consequences for kids who bully, and to have better reporting procedures for bullying.

Meehan said the district has done "just enough to keep the district from being sued" when it comes to bullying.

Meehan is a teacher in Old Bridge public schools and his running mate, Studd, is a public school teacher in the Red Bank district; she teaches high school engineering and math at Red Bank Regional.

"It starts at the top," said Del Sordi. "Are our leaders acting with kindness and compassion and inclusivity?

Question #3: What is the most pressing need related to special education?

"As a teacher I have hands-on experience with IEPs and 504s," said Studd. "Unfortunately, parents are sometimes told the district doesn't have the money to provide services, and this is completely unacceptable. The IEP/504 system can be hard to navigate. A focus of mine would be be to create a process that is accessible and transparent to all."

"I experienced having to go through the IEP process myself (as a parent)," said Del Sordi. "It is not intuitive. Making it a lot more accessible to parents would be great. Making sure we have early intervention is also critical."

Soporowski emphasized repeatedly that he wants to make all Middletown school buildings and facilities better suited for students with special needs. Not every facility in the Middletown school district is ADA-accessible, he said.

Skalaski said the current administration is "doing wonderful with including special-education children."

Tobacco said she also is a special-needs parent and that she also runs a non-profit that serves special-needs children in Middletown and the area (her horse farm, Peace, Love & Horses).

"It's one area I'm extremely passionate about, and one area I think we've made some big strides on ... Middletown had a little bit of a bad reputation for sending kids right out of the district and not servicing the IEPs. We're working to change that," she said. "We've hired behavioral therapists, 12, and will potentially hire 16."

"I have a child myself with an IEP and I couldn't be happier from how Middletown handles everything as far as IEPs," said Capone. "I take a little offense to people who say we are not doing a lot for special needs. We have done everything possible, to keeping our student in district and giving them the resources they need."

Question #4: Should the Middletown district revisit zoning for different schools, especially in light of all the development in town?

"If we want to talk about redistricting, we should really talk about the condition of our facilities," said Sporowski. "If our facilities were up to today's standards we wouldn't be talking about redistricting. If there were adequate classrooms for the arts, a music room in the schools, an art room in the schools ... you'd be able to have smaller class sizes. Rather (than) redistricting, the story we should be talking about is how can we improve the facilities that we have? Because quite frankly, the facilities are an embarrassment."

Studd then said the biggest problem on this topic is "the strategic plan is lacking any updated goals. It hasn't been touched in over two years. I honestly can't say I'm fully aware when it comes to the district's needs and overcrowding."

"Without knowing what's happening with the strategic plan, we can't really understand where the board is focusing their time and energy on," agreed her running mate Del Sordi. "We've got population growth and overcrowding."

Tobacco then said she "wanted to clarify some misinformation that was just passed along."

"The strategic plan gets updated every five years, not every year," she said. "Next in January 2025. There are six goals on that strategic plan, and only one involves facilities and talk of redistricting. But I will agree that we have to do something."

Capone and Tobacco both said the Middletown school district has seen a drop in enrollment.

"We've had a decrease in (student) population. That does not mean that some places are not overcrowded," said Tobacco.

"The class sizes are the lowest level it's ever been in many, many years actually. We have declining enrollment," said Capone.

You can watch Monday night's forum here; it went for just over an hour and many more questions were asked and more topics covered. Every day this week, Patch will run articles summarizing what was said. Monday night's forum will be the only chance the Middletown BOE candidates will have to come together for a live debate.

The election is Nov. 7. Middletown residents will be asked to choose three from the seven candidates running.

Candidates Spar In Middletown School Board Forum Monday Night (Tuesday)